CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The new Center for Translation Studies at the University of Illinois has chosen its first director.
Elizabeth Lowe, associate director and associate scholar in the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Florida in Gainesville, has accepted Illinois' offer and will begin her duties in August, upon approval of the U. of I. Board of Trustees.
"We have landed our No. 1 candidate," said Douglas Kibbee, acting director of the Center for Translation Studies and director of the new School of Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics. "Everyone on the search committee is very enthusiastic."
According to Kibbee, a professor of French, Lowe has "the perfect mix of translation skills, administrative smarts and fundraising experience to turn our dream into a reality."
The search for the inaugural director began in September. Illinois' Center for Translation Studies was established in June 2007.
Lowe said that it is "an honor and an incredibly exciting opportunity to accept this offer to lead the new University of Illinois Center for Translation Studies at a time when there is a critical need for translator education and training in the United States."
"I look forward to working with the director and faculty of the School of Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics to fulfill the vision for the Center and make it a world-class center of excellence in translation studies."
At Florida, Lowe also is a member of the graduate faculty and an affiliate faculty member of the department of Romance languages and literatures.
Lowe's major teaching areas are literary translation, translation theory and practice, and terminology and computer-assisted translation. Her special research interests include inter-American literature, translation and reception theory and terminology.
Lowe also has an interest in indigenous languages of the Americas and language policy.
Lowe is the author of the book, "The City in Brazilian Literature" (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1982), and a co-author of "Translation and the Rise of Inter-American Literature" (University of Florida Press, 2007).
She has contributed to seven other books and written two dozen journal articles and reviews.
A professional translator, Lowe is the founder and director of the Translation Studies Certificate at Florida. Her translation work has focused on contemporary Brazilian literature.
Another area of Lowe's strength within Florida's Center for Latin American Studies is distance learning and program development.
She is a member of the American Literary Translators Association, the American Translators Association, and the PEN American Center; she is the recipient of awards for excellence in international education.
Lowe has been at Florida since 1991. From 1991 to 1998 she served as executive associate director of the school's International Center.
Prior to her work at the Florida, Lowe was the director of international education and assistant professor of Portuguese and Spanish at Miami-Dade Community College in Miami.
She was a Fulbright Visiting Professor at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogota, Colombia, from 1978 to 1984.